At half time England were hardly in it, a 9-3 scoreline barely doing justice to Scottish superiority at scrum and line-out, to the intensity which they brought to their work and to the intelligent variations they used to discomfort England.

Scotland had obviously learned a great deal from how Argentina went about their business in England’s opening fixture. Put pressure on England’s first phase possession, create havoc at the breakdown, sweet talk the referee, attempt the unorthodox and England are a side with no obvious exit strategy.

But, and here’s the thing with this England mob, just when you think you’ve got them by the short and curlies they find a way to win a game they could have lost. It’s a priceless quality.

Scotland have now lost two matches they could argue with some legitimacy they had a fair chance of winning, while England have done the reverse, squeezing victories from two that could easily have slipped away from them, and scoring a crucial try deep inside the final quarter to do so. It’s no fun being gallant losers. Just ask the Scots.

If that is one reason why England are still alive and kicking in this tournament, another is that they always seem to find different people to step up at important moments.

Against Argentina it was the introduction of Ben Youngs off the bench which sparked an England revival adding tempo and accuracy.

Against Scotland, Youngs was awful, taking too long to deliver his passes, getting caught at the breakdown, knocking on. His performance was too terrible for words.

Did it matter? Ultimately, no, because Richard Wigglesworth and Toby Flood arrived on their white chargers to attack the gain line and make the space out wide for Chris Ashton to score. And it was the same in other areas of the team.

Courtney Lawes, back after suspension and Martin Johnson’s teacher’s pet, was as invisible as an 18 stone, 6ft 6 ins tall lock can be, but again it wasn’t an issue because Tom Palmer came off the bench to add substance to a front five which was decidedly second best in the first period.

That is the context in which to evaluate England’s weaknesses. However ingrained and damaging they appear, they, at this point in the tournament at least, are not life-threatening.

That said, Johnson could make life a whole lot easier for himself if he could improve England’s start which was woeful and tactically inept. It wasn’t much of a secret as to how Scotland were going to play.

“We’ll try to create chaos,” Scotland coach Andy Robinson said, “to force a quick game.” England’s response was for Jonny Wilkinson to hoof the ball up in the air as often as possible in the first half-hour, allowing Scotland to fashion the perfect storm around where the ball landed.

That was just dull, as dull as the three line-outs England lost on their own ball in the first half, the three scrum penalties (two by Matt Stevens, one by Dan Cole) awarded against them, and the dropped passes and other errors which allowed Scotland to dictate territory.

It is tempting to say that against sides capable of scoring tries (i.e. not Scotland), England might not recover from such profligacy, but with France to come in the quarter-final and with the likelihood of another Six Nations opponent in the semi-final, that might not be a concern.

Even by starting badly, and with a kicker in Wilkinson who is clearly out of sorts, England might muddle their way through their next two matches because their defence is solid and because in Ben Foden, Manu Tuilagi, Delon Armitage and Ashton, they possess individuals who are game-changers.

It’s an unwieldy way to go about getting to a World Cup final, and quite what it says about the quality of the teams in that half of the draw I’m not sure, but that’s the reality.

So, France next up on Saturday, another team who have fumbled and fretted their way to a quarter-final.

Given the topsy-turvy, error-ridden nature of both side’s progress in this tournament so far, it will no doubt be a classic.